"Use saved conversion settings" -- why?

[kovidgoyal]

Originally Posted by Phssthpok

Can I ask why the checkbox is only available on the bulk convert dialog, and not when converting a single book?

Actually, IIRC there is a Retore defaults button in the single conversion dialog as well, bottom left area I thikn

[Divingduck]

Kovid,
is there maybe a chance to add a function in the template language for identify books with non standard conversion settings?

I'm perfectly ok with the standard and per book behavior. I modified my standard in the main conversion setup so that it works for most books and my reading devices, but I sometimes need to change these settings due to books that need more fine tuning or because of special adjustments for different ebook devices.
One of the major problems I had, is to identify those books and I often wish to have a custom column with a function that I can use to identify these books.

Best regards,
DD
Happy Holiday Season and all the best for the New Year

[kovidgoyal]

IIRC the quality check plugin already has a function to identify these books, and if not it would be trivial to add there.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

IIRC the quality check plugin already has a function to identify these books, and if not it would be trivial to add there.

I checked and I can't find this option on the Quality Check plugin. I tried doing conversion_options:true in the Calibre search bar and that didn't work, either.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

I checked and I can't find this option on the Quality Check plugin. I tried doing conversion_options:true in the Calibre search bar and that didn't work, either.

It is at the bottom of the 'Check ePub Structure' menu.
I am not really sure what it uses for the detection template.

If you have a SQLlite browser look at the conversion_options table: Data column (blob will be set)

[Divingduck]

Kovid,
I guess my request wasn't described very well.

As fare as I know, there is no information available to check for a "non standard" conversion. With standard I mean, what is stored in the general conversion template. In the Quality Check plugin I can find only books with a conversion in general.

I don't look for the book itself, I try to find the information that identify a conversion setup different from the standard template. In the end all books with an individual conversion setup that is stored somewhere in your database as soon as I tweak a conversion setup for a book individual.

In addition, QC works, if I remember correct, only for EPUB and maybe MOBI (last one I didn't check). I look for a more general search that works for all formats as described above (if possible)

[kovidgoyal]

the moment you change any setting, all previously converted books no longer match that setting, (unless you are toggling that setting between a few commonly used values). So this function would get a lot of false positives.

[Divingduck]

Normally I use only the conversion w/o tweaking my conversion template because I did that in the general template via preferences -> conversion. This template I don't change for a long time. Individual changes I do only if a conversion fails with this method. And for those individual changes I was looking for.

How is this working for the library? My understanding was that you store this individual conversion setup for a book only if I tweak a conversation and if I click on "restore defaults" this will be deleted or overwritten with the general template. That was the point where I thought it is possible to identify the books with "non standard" conversion entries in the database or where ever this information is stored.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by theducks

It is at the bottom of the 'Check ePub Structure' menu.
I am not really sure what it uses for the detection template.

If you have a SQLlite browser look at the conversion_options table: Data column (blob will be set)

I know about the conversion_options table. That's why I tried conversion_options:true in Calibre search.

The "Check calibre conversion" in Quality Check PI only checks if an epub was converted with Calibre. It doesn't actually tell you if there are saved conversion options for a specific book. It does this by opening the OPF file inside the EPUB and checking for:

name="calibre:timestamp:

or

<dc:contributor opf:role="bkp">calibre

I just remembered that the MultiColumnSearch plugin has a tab for Raw SQL Queries.

This worked for checking which books have saved conversion settings:

SELECT id FROM books WHERE id IN (SELECT book FROM conversion_options)

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by Divingduck

How is this working for the library? My understanding was that you store this individual conversion setup for a book only if I tweak a conversation and if I click on "restore defaults" this will be deleted or overwritten with the general template. That was the point where I thought it is possible to identify the books with "non standard" conversion entries in the database or where ever this information is stored.

I believe "Restore defaults" only restores the Calibre-wide general conversion settings to their original values. (so those would be in config/conversion/*.py)

It doesn't affect the per book saved conversion settings which are stored in the "conversion_options" table in metadata.db.

[Divingduck]

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

It doesn't affect the per book saved conversion settings which are stored in the "conversion_options" table in metadata.db.

I took a look to the conversion_options table and it seems this is the table to look at. In first view this table includes only book_id's hat have modified conversion settings.

@Kovid, can you confirm this?

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by Divingduck

I took a look to the conversion_options table and it seems this is the table to look at. In first view this table includes only book_id's hat have modified conversion settings.

@Kovid, can you confirm this?

Note, if you do a conversion in Calibre, those settings will be stored in that table regardless if you use the default settings or modified them.

I'm guessing this is why Kovid mentioned you'd get a lot of false positives for your particular use-case.

[Divingduck]

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

I'm guessing this is why Kovid mentioned you'd get a lot of false positives for your particular use-case.

Yea, I just recognize this too with a test library.
It looks like there is no easy way to identify what I'm looking for.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

I believe "Restore defaults" only restores the Calibre-wide general conversion settings to their original values. (so those would be in config/conversion/*.py)

It doesn't affect the per book saved conversion settings which are stored in the "conversion_options" table in metadata.db.

Which "Restore defaults" are you referencing:

Preferences or Single Conversion

My reading of the tooltip for the the first is that it resets the selected Preference values to the Factory (installed) Default settings; and I have always assumed the second resets the selected values to what is currently set in Preferences. I haven't messed with conversion settings for a couple of years, so my memory is a bit rusty.

The button in Single Conversion lacks a tooltip, perhaps that could be remedied, and maybe relabel the button to "Restore User Preference Settings", or "Remove Book specific stored settings". The latter would make it consistent with Bulk Metadata Edit; if that indeed is what it does.

IMO the QC plugin would be the logical place to provide something that listed the books with one-off conversion settings, e.g. a Check individual conversion in the Check Epub structure group. But, given plugin is a) not being actively maintained, apart from making sure it continues to work, and b) it currently relies on the content of metadata.opf files for related checks, then this may not be easily done.

So, if it can't be done in via template function used in a custom column as suggested by DivingDuck, then IMO, the next logical place would be a new tool in DaltonSt's JobSpy plugin. Assuming there is someway to interrogate SQL database to get the right answer, as per ilovejedd's post #24.

BR

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by Divingduck

Yea, I just recognize this too with a test library.
It looks like there is no easy way to identify what I'm looking for.

Might be possible with SQLiteBrowser.

Browse the conversion_options table and sort it by data column. Select Mode: Binary when viewing cell contents.

Granted, the reason this might be working for me is because I do a lot of bulk conversions (hundreds or thousands of books at a time) so at the very least, the blobs for each batch of books are identical.

And yep, I've deleted records from the conversion_options using SQLiteBrowser with seemingly no ill effects.